Lieutenant-General Sir David House

Lieutenant-General Sir David House, who has died aged 89, was GOC Northern
Ireland from 1975 to 1977, a testing time for the security forces, before
holding the office of Black Rod, which, while usually ceremonial, turned out
to be anything but a sinecure.

6:01PM BST 09 Aug 2012

An outstanding infantryman, large and cheerful with great presence, House succeeded General Sir Frank King as GOC in August 1975 amid a wave of tit-for-tat killings by the IRA — which had officially called a truce — and Loyalist paramilitaries. Days before, three of the Miami Showband, one of the Republic’s most popular groups, had been gunned down by a gang which turned out to include off-duty members of the Ulster Defence Regiment.

Lt-Gen Sir David House

The Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees, sought with House and other security chiefs to marginalise the terrorists through a policy of “Ulsterisation” and “criminalisation”. They advocated the disengagement as far as possible of the Army’s non-Ulster regiments and replacing them with the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the UDR.

If the number of Army casualties could be reduced, Rees felt, the pressure in Britain for withdrawal from the province would diminish. The strategy was also designed to change perceptions of the conflict from a colonial war to a campaign against criminal gangs.

Before Rees and House could make much progress, the deteriorating situation led House to call up UDR reservists over Christmas 1975 and put extra troops into the “bandit country” of South Armagh. Weeks later the IRA ended its ceasefire, and violence surged. The British ambassador in Dublin, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, was assassinated and IRA prisoners began the “blanket protest” which would culminate in a prolonged hunger strike.

In September 1976 Roy Mason took over from Rees. He adopted a tougher strategy, aimed at taking the war to the IRA. By the time Timothy Creasey replaced House in November 1977, deaths from terrorism in the province had more than halved; senior Republicans would later admit that they had come “close to being beaten”.

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Retiring from the Army, in 1978 House was appointed Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, the Royal functionary responsible for the ceremonial, security and operations of the House of Lords. Politics was in a fervid state, with James Callaghan’s Labour government surviving without a majority, and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives doing all they could to dislodge it. The tensions heightened after Mrs Thatcher took office in 1979 and embarked on radical and controversial policies.

Black Rod traditionally summons the Commons to the Lords for the Queen’s Speech and the prorogation of Parliament, and — just as traditionally — the door of the chamber is slammed in his face to emphasise the independence of the Commons. After he knocks three times, it is reopened.

But when House arrived at the Commons on the evening of December 13 1980 to summon MPs for prorogation, the door was slammed in earnest. Forty Labour MPs, livid that Michael Heseltine, the Environment Secretary, had announced a plan to increase council rents just too late for a statement to be made in the Commons, refused to let Black Rod in — with plans to rugby-tackle him if he got through.

Labour and Conservative MPs jostled at the Bar of the House until Norman St John-Stevas, Leader of the House, secured the temporary withdrawal of Heseltine’s proposals. Only then was House, who had waited with baffled dignity, allowed to enter the chamber.

Ministers seized on the episode as an example of Labour “lawlessness”, but Downing Street was furious with Heseltine and his department for slipping out a controversial announcement of which it had been totally unaware. Bernard Ingham, Mrs Thatcher’s press secretary, decreed that in future departments must inform Number 10 of any planned announcements, and normally make them only when the Commons was sitting.

House continued as Black Rod until 1985 without his authority again being challenged.

David George House was born at Steyning, Sussex, on August 8 1922 and educated at Regent’s Park School in London. After attending Octu, he was commissioned into the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in 1941 and served with the 1st Battalion in the Italian campaign, during which he was awarded a Military Cross.

On September 5 1944 he was near San Savino, on the Gothic Line, commanding a carrier platoon which was ordered to support an attack by a squadron of tanks of the 9th Lancers. He worked his carriers forward under sniping and heavy and accurate shelling and mortar fire; when the tanks were close to their objective he dismounted his men and charged in on foot.

His small force killed many of the Germans who were waiting to ambush the tanks, and took 20 prisoners. When more resistance came from a vineyard behind the tanks, House went in on foot, killed several snipers and collected another large batch of prisoners who had been lying low and had to be flushed out. The citation for his MC commended his skill and courage, and stated that without him the armoured squadron would have been unable to hold their ground.

In 1947 House was granted a regular commission. He commanded the 1st Battalion Green Jackets in Penang, and subsequently Berlin in 1964-65.

House had just taken over in Penang when, one Sunday morning, he asked his signals officer up to his residence to give “a little assistance”. The officer was led into the bathroom, where the CO opened the door with great caution and, stepping aside, pointed to an enormous snake coiled up on the lavatory seat. “There you are,” said House, “that’s what I want you to help me remove.”

Observing this horrid creature less than two feet away, the officer froze and in a voice close to treble exclaimed: “But Colonel, I can’t do that! I simply hate snakes and this one looks particularly dodgy.”

“Well,” House said eventually, “I suppose he will have to stay here until tomorrow. I can’t risk my wife and the girls finding it. How about a drink?” Over a cold beer there was a twinkle in House’s eye as they discussed whether it would have been lawful to order a junior officer to remove a snake from the CO’s loo.

In 1965 House took command of the 51st Gurkha Brigade in Borneo during the “Confrontation” with Indonesia. He was mentioned in despatches at the end of his tour. He was chief of the British Commanders-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS) based at Potsdam from 1967 to 1969, then moved to the MoD as Deputy Military Secretary.

After three years as Chief of Staff of the British Army of the Rhine, House became Director of Infantry in 1973. He was Colonel Commandant of both the Light Division and the Small Arms School Corps from 1974 to 1977.

He was appointed OBE in 1964; CBE in 1967; KCB in 1975; GCB in 1977; and KCVO in 1985.

David House married, in 1947, Sheila Darwin. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their two daughters.